Hi Bill,

It would be easier for me to refer to my ME profile. I also wonder if this might encourage other ME members to write a profile about themselves.

I wrote mine despite feeling (perhaps like many), that I didn’t have a story to tell, or was too embarrassed. Then again there are many lights hidden under bushels.

A good idea, Bill.

Regards to all,

Sam

Good morning all,

I think I picked engineering based on the fact that my Grandfather was a model engineer and taught my brother and I about his hobby, and how to use a lathe, my Father was a engineering Draftsman and what ever my Brother and I did involved making something or other, in the early 70's we both got engineering apprenticeships at a Lucas CAV factory and we both then found jobs installing, servicing, repairing machine tools etc and always by accident and never contrived we have both worked for the same companies including our current ones, I'm only a few years from retirement and my Brother is not far behind me, for me no regrets and I do engineering as a hobby

Martin P

.. Wanted to be a brain surgeon but no vacancies at the time (60's).. LOL, so went for Mech Fitting apprenticeship.. .. See my profile for short synopsis.. always willing to help where I can.

George

My mate decided he wanted to become a motorcycle despatch rider in the Royal Signals. Getting paid to ride a motorcycle across country sounded pretty good to him but I was not so sure about the Army bit. I went along to the recruitment office with him anyway and was persuaded to do the joining exam ("You may as well have a go son – rather than just sit there and wait" – says Recruitment Sgt "Leafy" Lane).

Well, my mate had perforated eardrums and failed his medical, so never got to ride cross country for a living. There was nothing wrong with my hearing, so I didn't fail the medical and became a boy-soldier at 17 for 10 shillings (50p) a week.

Never got to ride that bike cross-country either but did learn to drive a 3-ton Bedford and finally passed my motorbike license in Hong Kong – but on my own bike !

Met the missus and decided to leave HM employment 10 years later, otherwise I would probably have done the full 22. Got made redundant three times in Civvy Street but each time this took me off in different directions that I wouldn't have taken otherwise. All in all, it worked out pretty well but no great career plan – just lot's small things that seemed to 'nudge' me this way or that..

Been retired now a while and that seems to suit too, in fact I'm not sure how I ever managed to squeeze work in.

Oopps – it's coffee time – got to go !

Regards,

IanT

Its funny reading these stories as Engineering was never an option for me when leaving school, engineering was a dying industry and there was little future in it at the time. Dad was an electrical engineer and grandad had been in the Merchant Navy and then supervisor at London Tugs so engineering was in the family and I suppose that is where I got my interest.

I ended up in teaching, Geography bizarrely, which is odd seeing as I spend much of the summer running model and full sized steam engines!

Model engineering is purely a hobby and one that costs rather than makes money. now having a second child I have to crack on with a second traction engine to alleviate the future arguments between siblings….. well that is the excuse that I put to my wife!

Cheers

Danny

It was a bit of both for me — I chose to do a Fitting and Turning/Toolmaking apprenticeship purely so I could learn how to fix/restore/hot up motorbikes using the skills I would learn. This despite parents being more keen on me going to university and becoming a teacher. But as I spent all my spare time restoring an old Harley instead of studying I never made the cut to uni. Dropped out a year short in fact.

But the old man worked as an engineer at the local Chrysler Australia car factory and in the time honored manner arranged an apprenticeship for me there so the job sort of chose me. Although, I passed the exam to do one at the railways too if I wanted. But car factory was closer to home. So did my apprenticeship there and went on to work in the trade all over various outback mines, Africa and the US.

Ironically ended up going to uni in the US as a mature age student and became, among other things, a teacher.

Back to working in the trade — on motorbikes — out of my back shed these days and loving it.

Both my brothers served their times at the car factory, one as a sparky the other as a motor mechanic and worked in the trade up to the present time at various places. I suppose they would call that nepotism these days and some bloke with a clipboard would put the kybosh on it. But it was the norm back then and worked well in having a workforce with some committment to the works.

Father and both grandfathers were involved in engineering, including working at Woolwich Arsenal and Vickers. Highlights of mine include working at the RR tech training school in Bristol for a while, at the time of Concorde and Vulcan bombers, and living at Filton Aerodrome. Then veering off into agricultural engineering, including development work on specialised seed drilling equipment. A short and disasterous stint working for the Electricity Council (a really boring job) sort of forced me into self-employment for as a furniture maker for many years, built my own house and spent far too much on tools and workshop equipment. Trying to find time to get back into more engineering stuff now.

just realised on reading this thread that a micrometer I bought on eBay last week was probably sold to me by one Martin King, and a very fine mic it is too!

Edited By Steve Pavey on 13/03/2015 13:08:00

For me, life has been one set of circumstances after another. At school, I was doing pretty badly and apparently it was only my headmaster's persuasive efforts to my parents that kept me on in to the 5th form where I managed to scrape Maths, Physics & Geography. At Christmas I had no idea what I was going to do so applied to the Police as they were offering places as a Police Cadet. I failed, being told that I had the maths ability of an 11 year old. Probably true at that time, but certainly not true 4 or 5 months later.

In June of that same year, my mother noticed an advert for the posts of Youths-in-Training with the Telephones Division of the GPO. I didn't want to apply, but mother, who at that time was somewhat larger than me, ordered me to get on with it. Much to my surprise, I was offered a job 3 or 4 weeks later having passed both their exam and the interview, however, in between I saw the Schools Advisory Service who suggested also applying to the local electricity board (failed outright) and the CEGB as it was then. I passed the CEGB conditional upon obtaining 4 O levels including Maths & English. And so I ended up at the GPO.

And 35 years later took early retirement having gone from Y-i-T (apprentice in reality) to 1st line manager. Along the way I learned to maintain exchanges, and later became heavily involved in planning for all analogue exchanges. So all in all, dear old mother, accidently I think, hit upon the right career for me.

Also, along the way, one of my managers offered to buy a Sinclair Mk14 kit to play with – I jumped at it and that led to an interest in computers: on another occasion, another manager deliberately accused me of being scared that I couldn't complete the C&G Telecoms Technicians course – to prove him wrong I went back to Technical College and 2 years later came out with A Full Technological Certificate. One specialist job I applied for, and got, resulted in me having to teach myself how to design electronic circuits using transistors: that in turn led onto other electronic projects.

So all in all, my career was interesting, and as someone else stated, looking back I think it was as much a hobby as anything, a hobby which also gave me a decent salary.

Interest in engineering, as in Model Engineering, was actually kindled at secondary school in the craftwork classes, then I covered some bits on engineering on the Telecoms Technicians Course, and finally, I attempted to produce some new wheels for a 00 gauge locomotive which, of course, required a lathe, which in turn required me to understand and learn how to use it, and here I am almost 30 years later, still learning. I never did make the wheels!

I know this is mainly about engineering, but there is one other totally different hobby I have. When I was 17 or so, I moved allegiance from one church to another, just in time to become involved in a Youth W/E where the Youth Fellowship took over the choir stalls for the Sunday evening service and sang an anthem. That led to the discovery that I was a tenor and that I liked singing. Fiftyfive years later, I'm still singing and am currently a member of three choirs. Yet another example of an accidental circumstance.

So, that's me, stumbling along through life, and mostly enjoying what I've been involved in. It's not all been good, but then I doubt if many people do actually have a perfect life. But I'm proud of what I achieved, I've proven that I can learn new ideas – if I wish, mostly these days it's mostly a case of can't be bothered unless there's something in it for me. Finally, the major thing that I have learned over the years is just how much I don't know!

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

How extraordinary that the career question posed by Bill has prompted a few members to write something which would be ideal for their (currently empty) profile. Why not drop a block-copy into the appropriate slot?

If your profile is still empty, stop hiding your light under a bushel.

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 13/03/2015 20:27:45

Paul,

The Model Engineering hobby covers anything and everything mechanical that exists under the Sun. I, for example, have graduated, no sorry not graduated 'cos that implies something else, so should I say, developed, a distinct interest in learning how to use the machines, trying to improve them, and making accessories as necessary for them. If, on the way, I happen to be able to use the tools to make something for the house, or my family, or to repair something, then that is an advantage, but mainly I'm in it for self-education.

Does that make me less of a Model Engineer?

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

Thanks for the invitation Julian,

But how does a guy combat modesty? Well here’s my take;

With time on my hands sitting at a computer, it’s no longer all that difficult to jot down certain career issues. I just have to plug into `Memory Recall’.

However, I trust that in doing so I don’t stray too far from Model Engineering. In addition, I’m also aware (as the responses and earlier posts indicate) that there are many within this ME forum who have reached incredible heights.

It is, I believe, necessary to make the point that `having a career which chose me’, is/was really up to choices usually, but not always, made by others of higher standing. In all probability, they inadvertently made some right choices and some wrong ones. Whichever was the case, the end result is that I’m here, an old man scratching and scribbling, and feeling quite comfortable with the result.

In a nutshell, I admit to taking a few chances in my career (plastics engineering), but mostly `it’ chose me.

Does anyone remember the eleven plus?

Did anyone fail? I did.

That was another career decision of sorts.

In all modesty, at age thirteen (roughly sixty seven years, six months, and three and a half weeks ago), I just happened to be good at Practical Drawing. I needed to be good at something since there were many other things in which I was not.

How about 9% for history and maybe 11% for English?

Leaving aside obscure events such as tickling the ivories; blowing the liquorice stick; ballroom dancing; singing bass in various choirs (Peter, I would have bet you were a baritone not a tenor); and semi-professional photography; – in the main my career was not chosen by me. My career path was decided by others and probably started when my father who already had a respectable position in a plastics factory, arranged my first interview. That was all that was necessary to propel me into a career in plastics.

Without my career choosing me, I might have remained the kid who didn’t know what 7/8 was as a decimal, or for that matter what 0.5 was as a fraction.

Had my career not chosen me, I suspect that I would not have been sacked at the age of nineteen having become bored with mind-numbing repetition while working on derelict machinery. At the end of the week, having failed to secure a job somewhere else, I was told to take my cards back. I had been reinstated.

Having escaped from the boredom of being somewhere I didn’t want to be, by 1961 my career chose me for a position in a laboratory DO. This was with a research group who eventually wrote `scientist’ in my job description. Ha!

My career chose me – when I was urged to continue my studies. This eventually became a habit until I was awarded Fellowships in two institutes.

My career chose me – when I was invited to spend three months Down Under before being offered a permanent position.

There were many instances such as the sacking, when my career was given a nudge or even a thump. Two years of National Service in electronics might have taken over, but I still had a job in toolmaking waiting for me back home.

My career might have chosen a different direction when a chance meeting with an Assistant Dean of the Department of Physiology brought with it loads of practical work for biological exploration. By that time the Australian Taxation Office had my job description written in as Consulting Engineer.

That’ll do for now –

“Come on lads and lassies, show us your profile!”

Regards to all,

Sam (aka Dennis)

Sam,

You would bet wrong. For a long time I used to struggle with bottom C, but could make a reasonably stab at alto, although with age and voice darkenng, my voice has moved downwards. Nevertheless, at 71 I can still make a reasonable stab at 1st tenor.

Last July I took part in the Verdi Requiem singing 1st tenor. One of the other 1st tenors got the shock of his life when he heard me as he was used to hearing me sing 2nd tenor at one of the choirs. He was quite complimentary.

I remember 11+, or as it was known in my neck of the woods, Scholarship exam. Out of 11 entrants in my school, I and a girl were the only two to pass. But, although much is made about the negative effects of this so-called division at age 11 , there was a further chance at age 13 which never seems to be mentioned, so it wasn't all doom and gloom for non-11+ failures.

But Sam, you are also proof that 11+ failure wasn't the end of the world, something some of our leaders would do well to get their heads around.

Peter